Firefighter contest entertains, hones skills

Posted: Saturday, August 07, 2004

By Joe Johnsonjoe.johnson@onlineathens.com

With colleagues, friends and family members cheering them on, a team of firefighters used streams of water from fire hoses to roll barrels up East Washington Street, while another team on the side of the road formed a bucket brigade to bring water from a pool, up a ladder and into a barrel atop a platform.

While it was all fun and games for 13 teams representing fire departments from across the state, the Firefighter Muster and Competition, held Friday evening between North Jackson Street and College Avenue was just a way of blowing off steam in friendly competition as a week-long state firefighters conference came toward its Sunday end.

"The competition is mostly for entertainment, but it also promotes coordination because everything they're doing is based on actual firefighting techniques," explained Johnny Crawley, elected this week as the new president of the Georgia Firefighters Association.

Since 1998, when they first came together in Augusta, the GFA and Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs have been holding joint annual meetings to discuss fire safety issues and other matters related to their profession. This year's meeting was held at the Classic Center on North Thomas Street, beginning on Wednesday and bringing nearly 450 firefighters from across the state to Athens.

Crawley, in addition to being the new head of the GFA, is a deputy fire chief in Thomson.

"Our ultimate goal is for the two associations to come together and speak with one voice in Georgia and at the capital in Atlanta, to help pass legislation and promote fire safety issues," Crawley said.

According to Crawley, the main thing to emerge from this year's joint conference was the development of a plan to achieve four main goals over the coming five years: upgrade firefighter training standards, improve fire department administration, improve training for fire chiefs and upgrade firefighting technology.

"We're living in an ever-changing society, yet some people still hold on to that romantic notion of rescuing kittens from trees while we're faced with the possibility of weapons of mass destruction," Crawley said. "Everything changed on 9/11, and firefighters are in the first line of defense."

In addition to electing new officers for each association, conference business has included seminars and exhibits, with attendees receiving legislative updates on homeland security, hazardous materials responses, fire codes and accessibility for people with disabilities.

In addition to benefiting members of the two fire associations, the joint conference has been a boon to the county, according to Athens-Clarke County Fire Chief Wendell Faulkner, who estimated each conference attendee could spend an average of $500 while here.